BRAZIL - Shorter Workweek Planned

Brazil was set to join other Latin American countries that have shortened working hours after the lower house of the Brazilian parliament approved a constitutional amendment establishing a 40-hour, five-day workweek.

Currently, Brazilians work five eight-hour days and four hours on a sixth day for 44 hours total. The amendment would end the six-day workweek without reducing pay for at least 37 million people and establish a 40-hour weekly work limit. It would guarantee two consecutive 24-hour rest days each week, preferably Saturdays and Sundays.

The amendment would give businesses 14 months to adapt, which was a key point in negotiations. Many business leaders and lawmakers wanted the changes to be made gradually over 10 years.

In February, Mexican lawmakers approved a proposal by President Claudia Sheinbaum to trim the 48-hour workweek. Working hours will be shortened gradually to a 40-hour workweek by 2030.

Chile in 2023 passed the so-called 40-Hour Law, which reduced its workweek to 40 hours as of last year. It applies to all workers under Chile’s Labor Code, without reducing pay.

-apnews.com, 28 May 2026

Commentary: Wikipedia states about the 40-hour workweek: “In 1593, Philip II of Spain established an eight-hour work day for the construction workers in the American Viceroyalties by a royal edict known as Ordenanzas de Felipe II, or Ordinances of Philip II.”

Today, this has been displaced; for example, by the Netherlands with 31.9 hours. Germany and Denmark are at 33.9 hours per week.

Not only the shorter workweek, but also in most European countries, federal law insists that the employer pays holidays and sick leave up to 40 days of a 5-day workweek. For example, Denmark and Finland have 36, France 35, Norway 35, etc. Quite interesting is that the USA has no federal law designating paid sick leave for employees.

When leisure and prosperity are combined, it will end in the greatest catastrophe for the world: the Great Tribulation.

The prophet Ezekiel has this to say about Sodom: “Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy” (Ezekiel 16:49).

(See Has the Tribulation Begun? Item #2406, $16.99.)